October 31, 2012

We were more than a little startled when we were cleaning up the other day and this butterfly fluttered across the room. It had been slumbering in or about the piano, which was propped open. I wasn't completely certain what to do with it this time of year but we figured we couldn't exactly foster a butterfly, nor did he need to meet his end on our watch, so we just carefully scooted him onto the dustpan and out the window.

October 29, 2012

Early in the month we were talking about making homemade playdough when I ran across a recipe for pumpkin scented dough. (actually this links to the basic recipe with a link to the scented) We had all the ingredients on hand so Alannah made up a batch for the littles one morning while I was working with the olders. Divide and conquer.

Yay-ah! <g> Seriously now, don't be a hater ok? 20 some yrs ago when I was teaching a five yo to read while my three year old was attempting to climb out the windows (not kidding, ask my neighbor) and my nursing one year old was beginning to toddle through the house I would probably have had some choice words for the woman with a built in extra pair or two of adult hands. But a) I had to be in your shoes to walk to where I am now and b) those extra adult hands don't linger long. They get jobs and go to school and move away all too soon. It is a teeny tiny window of wonderful collaboration. A grace God sometimes grants which helps to make year 25 of preschool as much fun as year one was.

Back to playdough. The post mentioned refrigerating the dough to boost its longevity. This recipe has lasted all month. In fact we had it out today and I am amazed at how pliable it still is.

We have made rolled out pumpkins with cookie cutters and added dry beans to make faces. We also made pumpkins from balls of dough and noodle stems. I want to point out though to any new teacher-moms that might see this that it is especially nice to organize a blog post around thematic colors and shapes. In real life though, it is the rare child who feels compelled to restrict his/her play to preselected, holiday appropriate themes. Hence, we have also had orange apple pie and pumpkin scented snowmen with the dry beans becoming snowman wigs. Which actually went sorta well with the Christmas story book from the library. In October.

October 27, 2012

Moira and have had a big week. Dinner for 30 on Monday. Yep. Thirty. Alannah flew to Germany early Tuesday. There was a co-op class, several football practices and games, and a trip to a haunted house. There were cookies and cupcakes made, some tiny girl dress up days.

And there were pictures, because the season is changing and so is my daughter. Moira, working diligently through regular schoolwork as well as delving into a worldview class, trying to master the new steps at the new dance studio, and now training for a 10k. Seems like more than ample reason for some spoiling, to celebrate who she is right now. : )

A women's magazine I read in the 90's used to run a column called 'What is in Your Hand?' which encouraged looking at what was already in your possession to create something new that was needed. It was in that spirit that we pulled this centerpiece together from some grocery store gourds, a pumpkin, a turkey platter, and some clippings from the garden.

Oh and some wonky candles apparently. The Polish candlesticks are wonderful but no candle is quite that circumference. Every time I light them I melt the bottom of the candles a few seconds to drip wax into the candlesticks to keep the candles upright. Need some clay I think.

Looking at this reminds me of a conversation I had with Rebecca several years ago when she asked me if I was an essentially cool color person or warm. I insisted cool because all the pictures I had saved and all the rooms I admired were composed of gray or robin's egg blue walls and white slipcovers. Neither of which I had lol.

Our ranch house was painted in sunset shades of salmon and rust when we bought it. Our home here has the exact same wall color in the great room as our old living room.

When we were at the pumpkin patch my husband sighed and said how much he loved the harvest colors and would love to have the house full of them. The feeling is mutual. So while I do admire those cool, clean shades and crisp white upholstery in other's homes, our own nest is much more earthy. (Literally too - a fair amount of EARTH makes its way into the house lol) Autumn is one of my favorite times of all.

It probably says a lot about me that I can ramble on for so many paragraphs about squash on a platter doesn't it? Thank you to dear friends enjoy rabbit trailing along with me.

October 20, 2012

A month ago Shakespeare was a really good prop, but it had been a while since I had dusted off the Lamb's volume. The little boys hadn't heard the stories I admit. I didn't have a real driving urge to fit them in. I admit that too. They were on the educational bucket list but that list is pretty long and we have been ticking off line items at a ferocious pace the past couple of years.

When we arrived in Germany we inherited a group of close friends. Jen was on her way out as we were arriving and she smoothed the path for us in so many ways. She introduced the girls and I around, helped us find extracurriculars. We were off and running in no time.

Arriving in England was different. We had work friends which was wonderful. The children knew no one however and living in the country meant no neighbors as built in playmates. While I was relishing the quiet community of the farm I knew the children needed more, at least some of the time. As the weeks wore on I, too, missed the comraderie we left.

The solution pushed all of us out of our comfort zones.

The best way for a newcomer to meet new people? Volunteer to be the offical meet and greeter in the homeschool group. : ) They needed to fill a board position. Doing that introduced me to some wonderful women, one of whom happened to have been stationed in Germany herself just before we got there. We have mutual friends it turned out. These women have there bearings here. They know the transit system and have older children for whom they are teaching older children classes. They welcomed our current set of olders in and we are happily pooling our energy and skills to meet each other's needs. It's awesome.

I have been reading a home management series and the author mentioned how her system has changed over the years but that each method used was perfectly suited to that particular stage of their lives. Homeschooling is like that. There are many constants in our journey. The specifics flex a bit from year to year, from pregnancy and nursing times to teen years. From good health and great energy to recuperation and quiet times. Books read to children in a hospital bed or a body cast and later seeing that same child posing before the Olympic rings. It all works over the course of the years spent together.

So, that is the long story of how on this day the older children and their Dad learned to navigate the system to get to the Globe and the Golden Hinde to highlight their Shakespeare co-op class. The little ones and Alannah and I baked and read at home. No doubt the roles will be reversed before long. I look forward to that too. Meantime, here are some of the pics from the field trip. They got a guided tour of the Globe:

Above are the "heavens" and on the stage floor is a trap door so actors could descend into "hell" as needed.

The children got a full hands on demonstration of costuming, complete with the dressing of one of the students in all the layers a female part would require. Their impression was that it was very, very heavy!

October 19, 2012

"The Great Pumpkin will appear and I'll be waiting for him! I'll be there! I'll be sitting there in that pumpkin patch... and I'll see the Great Pumpkin. Just wait and see, Charlie Brown. I'll see that Great Pumpkin. I'll SEE the Great Pumpkin! Just you wait, Charlie Brown. The Great Pumpkin will appear and I'll be waiting for him..."

Alannah reminded me daily since she first saw the signs go up. When are we going to the pumpkin patch? We are going to the corn maze right? Is it this weekend?

Yes. This is my newly adult daughter. : ) Truthfully we were all anxious to go.

First stop was the Maize Maze, which makes me smile every time I say it. Maize Maze. There. I said it again.

The kids listened intently as the attendent explained that this year the maze was created in the shape of the Olypmic rings. There were questions in each ring they had to locate and answer. You can see Brendan was getting a little concerned.

Off they went. Since the maze was for children 5 and older Abbie and I hung out in the patch. If I had been thinking ahead to how long it could take to find trivia in a half dozen concentric corn circles I probably would have kept the keys so we could get my purse from the car and buy some candy apples or something.

In lieu of that sort of preplanning I suggested to Abbie that she race through the pumpkins while I took about 5000 pictures of her. It's ok. I didn't upload them all.

mmmkay, maybe just a few. She's the baby, what can I say.

snail...

snail...

Do your kids do this? Mine have an assortment of fist bump animals. : )

Then they were all back and we got down to the serious business of picking perfect pumpkins.

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